Healbringer

I'm still a "new" 80 Defiler (having only been 80 for a month or two at most), and so I know that there is far more room for improvement than there is a lack of room for improvement. I've been lurking the board for a while now, taking what I could, storing away what I couldnt for when I eventually got to the point where it would be useful. However, I'm come to a bit of a stumbling block. I'm not sure if it's lack of player skill on my part, lack of AA's, lack of good equipment, etc. But something does not seem right.

Ever since I got my first toon to 80 (ranger, Hailbringer for some of you on Mistmoore), I've come to expect a lot from Defilers, and very seldom am I let down. When groups started getting hard to find for DPS (since there's an excess of them on MM), I decided to roll a Defiler myself, in the hopes that groups would be easier to find, and shards would come faster so the Ranger could get outfitted better. And Healbringer was born (a stupid spoof that I now regret at times >.>) However, I've recently switched my main focus to the Defiler. Granted groups are easier to find, but my responsibilities have basically tripled, and I take wipes rather personal (unless it was an obvious blunder such as pulling too much or a mid-fight afk, etc.) And that's why I come to y'all.

I've heard that, if properly equipped and played right (more emphasis on the latter), a Defiler can "solo-heal" any TSO shard zone, if the group makeup is correct, (makeup consisting not only of classes present, but also skill level, equipment, etc.). I am nowhere near this stage of the game yet, as my performance in some zones spikes drastically depending on the tank, or even if a Coercer is smart enough to give Coercive Healing to the only healer in the group >.> As unavoidable as it may be, I want to get to the point where I'm not quite as dependant on such buffs as I am now.

With all of this stated, it's probably quite obvious now that I'm not the best equipped healer out there. In an almost full t2 shard set, and will be finishing up my fabled epic tonight. Unlike the ranger, it would APPEAR as though my epic won't help my performance that much, as it only has +65 heal amount and a minor(?) proc. All legendary jewelry, save:
Sapphire Gemmed Necklace (+3 Heal Crit Chance, combined +90 Heal Amount (adorned), Benev Alac IV)
Saita's Glowing Jewel (+2 Heal Crit Chance, clickie effect that cures whoever I heal of 93 levels of detriments (group heals cure the whole group ^.^ ))
Wispy Wall of Air (+3 Heal Crit Chance, +45 Heal Amount, Benev Alac II).

Also use the Cloak of Reflection, Elemental Idol of x (depending on the resists needed), and occasionally the Shielf of Rainbow Hues.

All spells are Expert save Ancient Shroud, Death Ward, Voice of the Ancestors, and Wild Accretion, which are all Master. Have 131 AA's, which are STA (44681 - We farm WoE every weekend, and I'm the g2 healer since my reflexes and cures are fast enough for the Digg fight, Fire guy, and the Coagulate has saved people from full out dieing more than a few times) and WIS (46481). Defiler tree is Soulward (with a focus on the bottom three, all being a five) and Cannibalize.
Shadows is 5 and 5 on Secular Protection and Protective Prayer, and 5 and 5 on Prophetic Spirit and Tribal Frenzy.

Lookin at 610 Heal Amt, 44 Heal Crit, 8% Reuse Bonus.

So, fellow Defilers (with much cooler names, I'm sure).... Where should my first target area of improvement lie? Where should I farm for drops, keeping in mind that my alliance isnt in the best situation right now (as in, my guild seperated and is building its own now)?

Dranikdoomwarder

the mythical is going to be a HUGE help solo healing a group with the capability of heals attached to all your wards.

as far as gear-wise i'd say one major step you should take is to go get the claymore quest done. its a pain in the ass to do all those grey quests but A) they will yield a decent amount of achievement, and they made the quests so phs update the quests now (at least i think) and B) the arm of erolissi is one of the most powerful range items in the game STILL and anyone who isn't near max on %base heals will get a major benefit from having it.
Since the only raids required are kos ones which you can one group these days, i'd say that's definitely a major, easy-to-get upgrade you should shoot for

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arieste

Totem of Axnafen, Hoop of Fire Worship and the ethernaut collection reward are 3 items that will really improve the "right side" of your gear. They all come from collections. Hoop of Fire Worship is ridiculously easy to get. There is a decent and very easy to get belt in Ward of Elements with +4 recast. T3 BP is off Digg and has the same proc as the 5-piece T4 set, so get it. Barring that, get the 10% casting time robe from SoF (Robe of Alendine?) or even better, the new 10% casting time chain BP from KT heroic zone.

Don't get frustrated about solo-healing zones. NO ONE can solo heal a hard zone when the group is retarted and/or the tank is wearing paper.

Remember that wards are not "after-the-fact" heals, they are pre-heals. So staying ahead of the damage with your casting is key. Group heal and group ward take a while to cast, be aware of it. Know your quick casting spells and emergencies and don't be afraid to use them (Purulence, Soul Ward, Deathward, Avenger).

As it's been said, the mythical is the biggest upgrade you'll ever get, so get it or get on your way to getting it.

+cast time and +recast are your friends.

our T2 / T3 set is quite excellent, so wouldn't worry too much about being under-equipped on armor if you have it.

get a parser and parse your heals. look at the detailed % breakdown of your heals on long/hard fights. heal parse is NOT like a dps parse, it doesn't nearly tell the whole story, but it's an excellent tool for getting you to know where the majority of your heals come from or don't come from. if you're raiding with an experienced defiler, look at where their numbers come from and compare to your own. again, it's not the whole story, but it can help improve.

this forum is an awesome source of info with very knowledgeable people, if you ask nicely (like you did), you'll get a lot out of it. those that ask otherwise end up /emoquitting the forum after 3 posts. don't take stuff personally.

good luck

oh and join the defiler channel if you haven't.

if you need advice on non-raid gear, feel free to send me a pm with what slot(s) you're looking to fill. I tend to have quite a collection.

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Koinoo

Definately get your fabled epic, if not your mythical. Even your fabled proc adds a bonus to your heals (and fellow group healers) along with a spell damage reduction for your group, so it's worth having over most other items you're going to be able to get. The mythical would be a huge upgrade if you can acquire it, and is not currently replaceable.

The way I value gear upgrades: base heal > reuse > casting time

Heal crit will fit into there, depending on how much you have. The general consensus is once you reach 65-70% unmodified heal crit you should be fine. My goal was to get to 70-ish% without the AGI line bonuses, so you might want to shoot for that.

Also, make sure you're prewarding all the time. There's very, very few situations where a shaman can justify not prewarding (though for me, those don't exist). Wards are what make us exceptional healers, so make sure you're keeping them up all the time. I've run into quite a few shaman healers in pickup groups that flat out refuse to preward (complaining about aggro issues) and do not bother recasting their wards until they've completely worn off. They then find themselves struggling to keep up with damage and get labeled as useless healers.

Please, for the love of the class, don't be one of those shaman ;)

Then there are cures--do not neglect curing in TSO. Curing can be more important than healing in a lot of cases these days. So make sure you are paying attention to curing off effects when you are solo healing, as that can make all the difference in keeping the damage under control.

There's a ton of good information on these boards, so I suggest reading it all as well. One thing to take note of is that Razieh's AA setup in the sticky is primarily for raiding defilers. It is healing centric, but I'm not sure if you'll find that much use in a Hexation setup until raids. If you don't already have a couple of decent pieces of power procing gear and struggle with power in groups, I would stay with Canni over Hexation.

Alaocia

I would drop curseweaving over hexation if you're running primairly instances. You don't really debuff that much in instances, but the boosts to invective and tendrils would actually be beneficial to the person they apply it to. Not to mention there are mobs with damage shields in instances that hex actually would come in handy.

I would personally go Soul/Canni/Hex for now as your guild is rebuilding. Once your guild is back in business with some more faces to get into more raiding then go with Raz's proposed spec in the sticky.

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Midget Wrestling at it's finest!!!

Healbringer

I have just started that today Odd, because I have never touched the quest line in all 4 years of playing, and now that I look, not only at the final reward, but some of the other stuff as well that is earned on the way (instant 7k in-combat power usable and 12k health usable), it's a pretty sweet quest line, even for an 80 o.o But my experience is somewhat limited, so just about everything looks nice at this point. :p

Actually, I'm the kind that will repeatedly spam ward the group just in case of random roamers or pops. o.o Call me paranoid if ya want. Plus, I've noticed that the Damage Shield from the 3-piece set of the Shard armor seems to fix any problems a tank might have with pre-warding aggro. Then again, I tend to end up with tanks that I'm familiar with, so maybe that's part of my good luck.

And, having finished my epic just last night, I'm now on my way to nab the mythical! But gosh, I hated Astra >.>

Actually, one of the first things I did when I hit 80, was make a macro for my cure. Basically a /cancel_spellcast and then /cast cure on the next line. Always have it hotkeyyed to my "Alt Bar" (Alt+3), where my single-target was made with a /cancel_spellcast macro, and is Alt+1. The Group ward was NOT given the macro, simply so that I could quickly push Alt+1 then Alt+2 to cancel whatever I'm doing, start the first ward, then the group ward would be queaued up (but not cancelling the single-target ward) to eliminate that split-second downtime. Then I have my group Nox+Trauma cure at Alt+4, group anti-stun/fear at Alt+5. The rest of the hotbar is my heals, cure curse, Ritual (which I tend to cast right before the group-heal), warding pet, and Saita's Glowing Jewel.

To compliment all that (and mainly to facilitate fast target-switching + cures + wards) I tend to fight with both hands on the keyboard, holding down alt and tapping numbers with the left hand, and using the right hand for the F1-F6 keys to swap targets :p I'm big into maximizing time and leaving no moment when I'm not casting.

And all of this so I could cure faster ^.^ Does that sound like a decent setup or am I going WAY overboard?

Jonnieonthespot

Yes, what they said.

Also; keep a lookout for chokers in the group. Wearing one is fine if all is going well, but if the tank is going down like a two dollar whore because the melee are eating through your wards in 3 seconds, don't be afraid to ask them to take them off.

Berrbe

The answers covered everything i can think of, ok not everything but almost.
I tend to use my group heal then to ward(pre-pull) to get some procs up(the re2, rolling pin(claymoresoon in your case, etc.))

~Rockcoastie~

Imo make sure you get the t2/t3 shard shoulders if you don't have them already plus 8% to base heal amount is huge. As you can see im on vox (pvp). I have the t3 shard shoulders from WOE atm and also have the pvp shoulders which give +150 to heal mod. In reference to heals and wards even the t2 legendary shard shoulders were better for healing then the ones with 150 heal mod. This being said I have 1k heal mod and 82% heal crit self buffed. But I am sure people will agree those shoulders help over all. Second is the Rune Etched helm depend on the group buffs you have ie... Luck of the dirge, Blessings(from templar), the helms hateshield can be around 8-10% of your heal parse. Both of those can be gotten with and x2 of people. I dont know the quality or quantity of players on MM but i would image both of those should be rather easily attainable. And I agree with everyone else here the mythical would help you tons because of the heal proc that it adds to your wards. Hope this helps you some!

SirAmoel

So what weapons has a defiler against choker damage, beside asking everyone to take them off? What else can you do?

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